Liquid Mercury
by Gray-Rain Skies
Summary: [For Constance] Their bond is a kind of poison. [RikuKairi]


For **Constance Greene**. Why? Because she's awesome.

Yeah, and, well, she wrote me an amazing Anti-Sora _x _Kairi fic, too. And this is my pathetic attempt for a Riku _x _Kairi in return, and it isn't really that, but hey, work with me here; I'm hardly good at writing pairings I don't like, haha. Anyway, yeah, this was whipped up fast, so it might not be good, and might be the last fic from me for an expanse of time since I'm _still _working on this story of mine, so...yeah. Rambling, I know. Anyway, hope you enjoy!

**Disclaimer**: ...no.

-- - --

Her hand was sifting through darkness, and she was stepping through gravel to the place where they now always met.

Kingdom Hearts had closed a few years ago. Above her now the stars gleamed more brightly than ever as testament to that, the sky yawning towards the edges of their world, full of promise, full of hope. It had been a long time since then, and her friends had quickly forgotten, brushing aside brief remembrances of those dark ages as nothing more than dreadful nightmares. And truly that was all they were now, because now everyone one Destiny Islands was living in paradise once more, and she was granted the time to smile, an atmosphere of peace unrolled at her feet as she picked her way through the grass and rocks.

Horrors didn't happen anymore.

Her eyes were soft, too, regarding the quiet around her, head turning gently first to the left, then to the right, as she inhaled the sweet cold of the night. Below the cliff she was steadily climbing tropical waters crashed and stormed against the boulders, salty drafts spiraling upwards and dancing around her, playing with her hair. And she allowed herself a smile, excitement sparking in her heart, as she turned her attention back ahead and lifted her chin, catching his form beneath the tree that was their designated spot.

Love for him swelled in the part of her heart that was Naminé's domain, and she allowed herself a giggle, a tilt of her head, as she clenched her fingers around the flowers she carried and quickened her step, trotting eagerly towards where he stood. Riku, dark knight silhouetted against the deep blue of the night sky, waited for her loyally, and she could hardly keep him standing there any second longer, so she broke into a run, laughter calling his eyes to her form.

Indeed he turned his body as she crested the hill, expression stoic, aquamarine eyes sharp and pensive as they glowed more elegantly than the light from the moon. His look halted her, her footsteps stumbling as she tried to slow her pace, and as she walked achingly slow towards him to close the distance, he flicked his gaze away, off to the horizon, watching the final cobalt-blue fragments of a dying summer's sky. His strict form loosened, slumped, and then he was shifting his attention away from her completely. She frowned.

"No more adventures," he said with a slight sigh in his voice, though from the casual movement of his digging into his pockets he didn't seem to be concerned by this fact, his head cocked almost in amusement, his gaze not moving from the sea and sky connected, interlocked. "No more new worlds." Leaning his head back, silver bangs sifting away from his vision, he gave her a half-hearted smirk, and she shuffled closer, hands unconsciously clenching around her small bouquet.

"Are you sorry?" she asked softly, urgently, the question very important to her as she finally stepped beside him, her right hand falling to her side, almost immediately taken up by his left one. Squeezing back, she glanced at him anxiously, searching his face which was turned away, waiting with pursed lips and bated breath.

"Sometimes," he said softly, and incredulously her eyes narrowed, though he couldn't see. Almost sensing it, though, he squeezed her hand again, holding her to him, willing her through that gesture to understand him, to get him. "But I can't just…disregard his sacrifice, you know. I miss him every day," and this time, when he sighed, the sadness seemed real, the regret tangible. "Everything reminds me of him – that sky, the trees, the Secret Place. Maybe it's a blessing, though," and he turned to her with a half-hearted grin, shrugging. "Everywhere we go, he's there, too."

"Yeah…" She trailed off, looking after him oddly, and nodding confidently to himself Riku pulled back, walking over the grass and gravel, the earth giving beneath his feet as he walked over to their tree. She only watched his progress, though, not following; in her hands she clenched Sora's bouquet more tightly, knuckles whitening.

Resting his hand on the bark now, bowing his head, Riku dug his kneels into the tree, jaw visibly clenching. "It's been three years now, huh?"

"Yes," she said quietly, eyes never wavering from him. "Three years since he…" The word caught in her throat, though, whisked from her mouth by a dreadful sadness, and she turned her head away, closing her eyes to her tears.

"Kairi."

Clenching her jaw, lifting her head forcibly to meet his eyes, she finally forced a smile as he held her stare, expression never shifting, his seriousness unwavering. And at the intensity of his gaze she felt inclined to step forward, hands trembling as she first took small steps, tripping after almost every footfall, and then broke into a sprint, unclasping her hands to throw her arms around his waist, bouquet not forgotten.

"I miss him," she sobbed into his chest, pressing her face into the strong barrier of his chest, the rigidness so much a contrast to their fallen friend's softness, his muscles foreign now even after three years of being together, being in love. Sniffling, turning her head left and right as she tried to calm herself, grappling with the sorrow, he rested his hand on her head and smoothed his palm soothingly over her auburn locks, murmuring nothing, just watching over her grief and probably dealing with a new wave of his own. "Riku, I miss him so _much_!"

"Yeah," he muttered, and his voice thickened somewhat in the darkness, caught on something painful. "So do I."

She lifted her chin and stared up into his face, countenance overshadowed by the dark of the hour and the grief that had followed the both of them for three long, endless years. Breath shuddering as she pressed her arms more tightly against his sides, she pushed herself up on her toes and knowingly he lowered his mouth, their lips meeting halfway, the kiss painful and passionate beneath the branches of their tree.

Still, the gesture was foreign to her, and frustrated she crushed her lips more insistently against his, opening her mouth to him, wanting to be swallowed up by love and lust and forget the anniversary of her true love's death. But it was not Sora she was kissing, not soft lips she was capturing sweetly with her own, not clumsy fumbling and awkward touches she was giggling over in the dark. It was Riku turning her and pressing her against the tree with skilled hands, feeling Naminé in her curves and in her hair, wanting a person lost from their world back as much as she did. And it infuriated her, because this love they had, this _lie _they had, was not enough, and he didn't seem to care.

Breaking back and stumbling away from him, unbuttoned shirt opening her skin to the chill, teeth chattering and cheeks still flushed with warmth as she met his eyes in anger, she caught his confusion, his vulnerability, and hated him for it. Clutching the flowers to her breast as if to keep her modesty from him, she shook her head and red strands of hair whipped her cheeks, punishing her in the cold, because this felt all wrong. Loving him, making love to him…on this day, on _any _day, it wasn't right, and she'd known all along.

"Riku…" she gasped over shuddering breaths, still shaking her head, still insisting that they could love each other in a less painful way, that their needs around each other weren't too painful.

His eyes flashed with understanding, too, melted warmth in the light from the reaching moon, and easily he stepped towards her, head inclined, but she edged back. Watching him warily, fingering the stems of her flowers and finding something more sturdy, more lethal, hidden there by her own hand, she shook her head as warning to him as he held out his hand to her, friendship in his face, love in his heart for her. But she didn't want it, and insistently she walked more quickly backwards, not even stopping when a kind of panic lit his face and he lunged at her. Shrieking, letting her hand fly up, she watched the metallic blade flash imposingly as it sliced through the darkness, and then it was lost in the clothing covering his chest, lodged in his heart, scarring him with death.

Choking, coughing up blood, Riku stared after her wildly and reared back, tripping several steps in the grass before he fell, the word, "_Why?_" tumbling desperately from his lips.

As the wind whipped her hair about her face, solitary strands clinging to the tears already falling down her cheeks, she tilted her head innocently and shook her head. "You're not…_him_," she choked, falling to her knees afterwards, crawling to where he lay dying, away from the cliff he'd hoped to pull her from before she accidentally fell to her death. But he should've known; she wouldn't have cared if she'd died – at least then she'd be with Sora.

"You're not…her…either," he growled, then coughed, then gagged on the blood in his mouth as he inhaled shallowly and turned his head, spitting red liquid onto the grass. "But I…loved you…anyway."

"I loved you, too," she whispered, tears dropping from the lashes of her eyes, melting into the folds of his shirt. "Just not enough; not like I loved him."

Looking back to her, he met her pleading stare with his glower, the color of his aquamarine orbs dulling as he took his final breaths, and then, inexplicably, his gaze softened, and he nodded once. "I'll tell him that," he said softly, his voice merely a whisper in the cold night air, and she smiled lovingly at him, with more warmth than she'd regarded him in the three years since Sora's death. Still crying, but now smiling widely, she leaned over and kissed him goodbye. Even after he was gone, too, she cradled his head in her lap, giving her tears to him, about to give her life for him, too.

She would see them again; she had to. On the anniversary of the deaths of her first love and now her best friend in all the worlds, she'd give herself to the sea, and they would be bound forever by that day, a trinity even in death.

And it would be a fairytale come true.

-- - --

_Yuh_. Twisted, right? Anyway, please review!


End file.
